What Jamie Lynn Spears’ book accidentally revealed about her sister’s abuse
When Jamie Lynn Spears first announced her recent memoir, Things I Should Have Said, it was assumed by many that the book was a cynical attempt for the younger sibling of Britney Spears to profit off her sister’s much-discussed personal turmoil. Especially with the originally leaked title of the book being I Must Confess, a reference to lyrics in Britney’s debut hit single, and the timing of the announcement closely following Britney’s explosive court testimony in June of last year, it seemed that Jamie Lynn was taking full advantage of the increased media coverage on her family for her own financial benefit. I can’t say for sure how much money factored into Jamie Lynn’s decision to release this particular book at this particular time, but I can say after reading the thing that Things I Should Have Said is not a simple cash-grab. It’s something far worse.
Along with other members of Britney Spears’ family and inner circle, Jamie Lynn Spears has been provoking the ire of #FreeBritney activists for years. As a public figure herself, maintaining a modestly-successful career in both acting and singing since about 11-years-old, Jamie Lynn has a public platform she very plainly did not use to amplify her sister’s voice even as Britney’s 13-year-long conservatorship began drawing increased public scrutiny. It was possible, as many fans would appeal, that Jamie Lynn and others were working behind the scenes to help Britney escape her situation and didn’t need a hashtag movement to show private support. Though Jamie Lynn is attempting to claim this was the case in interviews today, the recent release of her book confirms a fan suspicion that is far from her intended message: that members of Britney Spears’ immediate family have been gaslighting Britney for years.
Purportedly written about Jamie Lynn’s own trauma and experiences as a child-star in a toxic family, Things I Should Have Said shouldn’t be centered around her sister’s chaotic life, but Jamie Lynn’s pain is inextricably tied to her place in Britney’s shadow. It’s natural for siblings to envy one another, especially in regards to parental attention and privilege. One can imagine that having the Princess of Pop as your older sister would exasperate the problem, and Jamie Lynn’s frustration as the less-attended-to child in her household is apparent from her memoir’s first chapter, lamenting how Britney’s needs were prioritized ahead of her own once Britney’s career became a family business. In a book about Jamie Lynn’s life, this development of her family dynamic is fair to explore, but her childhood conflict begins to feel shallow as she continuously displays her own preoccupation with her family’s cash cow, bringing up Britney so regularly throughout the book that the overall mentions of her name or the words “my sister” average out to about one reference per page.
Often when Jamie Lynn is discussing Britney, it’s either to claim she was like a mother to her early in life or to bemoan the moments where Britney’s maternal attitude toward her began to fade. She chastises her sister for “changing” early on. From the details we’re given, that seems to mean that Britney didn’t want to spend as much time with her family as she aged into her 20s and thought a dress her sister liked looked matronly. Jamie Lynn goes on to describe Britney as “erratic,” “disturbed,” and “paranoid,” however, at no point does her descriptions of Britney recount a person fully devoid of reason. She decides that Britney has “episodes,” implying some sort of periodic mental unwellness, but only offers examples with little-to-no context; a heated argument between Jamie Lynn and Britney is described in the book as an “attack” against Jamie Lynn, however, the altercation is never written as being either physical or particularly severe, and the matter Jamie Lynn says Britney “became enraged about” is dismissed immediately as “something trivial.”
It’s hard to read Jamie Lynn’s account of events without some suspicion of her deliberately leaving out details to make her sister look bad. Despite her attempts, she still fails to come across as anything but hypocritical. An incident in which Britney allegedly locked herself and Jamie Lynn in a room with a kitchen knife sometime in the mid-2000s is recounted as an example of Britney’s paranoia, yet it’s not clear from Jamie Lynn’s writing if Britney’s fears came out of nowhere or as a result of a genuine threat. The way it’s framed, Jamie Lynn likely wants readers to assume the former, but even she admits that their family home was bombarded with overzealous fans and paparazzi. At one point, Jamie Lynn says she and her mother locked themselves in a bathroom when a man parked his van in front of their house. That response was acceptable, we’re supposed to believe, but Britney locking herself and her sister in a room due to her own anxieties is evidence of paranoia.
Other descriptions of Britney’s erratic nature seem wholly petty to even mention–vague allusions to Britney being “moody,” less “amiable” than before, or partaking in things Jamie Lynn apparently disapproves of, like smoking cigarettes, drinking cocktails, and looking “disheveled.” As depicted in her sister’s book, all the evidence of Britney’s alleged mental illness revolves around her emotions happening to make her family uncomfortable; whether or not her emotions were valid is irrelevant in their eyes.
Of course, there are stories in Things I Should Have Said that don’t involve Britney. The abuse and manipulation of Jamie Spears, the family’s patriarch and Britney’s primary conservator for 13 years, is depicted as the throughline for much of the Spears family’s shared trauma. Mother Lynne Spears is described as an enabler for Jamie’s dependence on alcohol, and both parents are implicated in the exploitation of their famous children. Even apart from the Spears family, Jamie Lynn has experienced pain that is profound and worth speaking truth to–like the abuse she alleges to have faced at the hands of a former partner, the slut shaming she endured as a widely condemned teen mom in the public eye, and the terrifying accident that put her daughter on a ventilator and almost took her life.
When Things I Should Have Said was first announced in July of last year, Jamie Lynn and her publisher claimed to have been planning the project for over a year, but that’s not how the book reads. Though there are a collection of other topics covered throughout its 228 pages, all of it leads narratively to the penultimate chapter–a section titled “My Testimony” that directly responds to Britney’s statements against her conservatorship from the month prior to the book’s announcement.
Britney’s testimony alleged horrific abuse. She claimed, among other things, that her conservators forced her to undergo medical treatment she deemed traumatizing, intimidated her under direct threat to perform labor she didn’t want to perform, would not allow her to exercise her own reproductive rights, and regularly coerced her into silence. Britney claimed, essentially, that she was a victim of human trafficking directed by her father.
Those specifics of Britney’s abuse are not mentioned in Jamie Lynn’s book, nor are any of the allegations which followed the June testimony, including reports made by The New York Times claiming Britney’s father placed surveillance equipment in her bedroom to record Britney without her knowledge or consent. The conservatorship is never even implied to have had a negative impact on Britney; on the contrary, Jamie Lynn admits she enjoyed the arrangement as it kept both Britney and her father sober.
What Jamie Lynn does mention about Britney’s testimony is Britney’s broad claim that her family “did nothing” to help her in 13 years, something Jamie Lynn says “put [her] and [her] family at risk.” Jamie Lynn’s biggest problem with the words Britney spoke in that courtroom was not that her sister had been oppressed and abused by their shared father–perhaps that part wasn’t shocking–but that Britney’s description of said abuse wasn’t considerate enough to Jamie Lynn’s reputation. Jamie Lynn starts rattling off the traumatic experiences of her life again in a conclusion that solidifies the original point of the book: to undermine the appalling nature of Britney’s captivity by providing a laundry list of tough things Jamie Lynn also went through. “I want Britney and the world to know,” she writes. “That she isn’t the only one left with the scars from our early years of delinquency and manipulation.” The passage reeks of jealousy and entitlement.
Jamie Lynn’s original complaint that the adults in her life paid more attention to Britney’s needs than hers has extended to her outlook on the entire world. She seems to be asking, Why is everyone so concerned about my sister’s life as a trafficking victim while no one is talking about all the times that I’ve been sad too? Because in her mind, and in her words, Britney deserved what happened to her. “My sister’s diatribe,” she says, referring to Britney’s account of abuse. “Assigns blame outward without any self-reflection.” Jamie Lynn’s argument is that Britney’s pleas for basic human rights should have come with some admission of guilt–for being “erratic” or “moody” or whatever else her family decided to label her as to justify her imprisonment. Despite admitting her father’s culpability when it came to Jamie Lynn’s dysfunctional childhood, she refuses to admit Jamie Spears abused his power as his daughter’s conservator. Whatever hardships the Spears family face are not Jamie Lynn’s, her father’s, her mother’s, or her brother’s doing. “If I’m guilty of anything,” Jamie Lynn writes. “It’s of enabling the situation to continue by not speaking up earlier in [Britney’s] career… excusing Britney’s behavior has led us to where we are today.”
If this is the attitude Jamie Lynn feels comfortable and confident revealing to the world in her own memoir, fans no longer need to speculate on whether or not Britney’s sister should be held responsible for Britney’s abuse. The victim-blaming tactics Jamie Lynn displays so publicly are abusive themselves. As bad as Things I Should Have Said is, it’s calculated in its attempt to appeal to an audience of strangers and their judgment. We should shudder to think about what’s been said to Britney Spears for years in private when the family around her knew the public wasn’t watching.
If you want to read more about how Jamie Lynn Spears can’t stop wrecking her own reputation, check out my follow-up post on her book tour.